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[Welcome to the Sous-Chef Series, a new, sporadic feature on SK in which I invite cooks I admire over to my small kitchen to teach me — and thus, us — to make one of their specialties. Spoiler: I’m the sous!]

I first heard of the Russian restaurant Kachka when I was last in Portland, Oregon on book tour (hi, Powell’s!), when no fewer than a dozen people separately told me I had to go while I was there. A few said it wasn’t just their favorite restaurant in Portland, but their favorite restaurant, period. This made me all the more sad that I didn’t have time to make it happen. My regrets snowballed when I finally dug into the restaurant’s eponymous cookbook last summer. I was no further than the first page — where the confusion as to what is “Russian” food when “food from the former Soviet Union including Russia but also the countries surrounding it like Belarus, Latvia, Ukraine…” would be more accurate is humorously laid out — when I became deeply, emphatically obsessed with all that I’d missed.

The book is a delight on every page; a bit of history, a substantial amount of wry observations, some hilarious guides (how to navigate a Russian grocery store, the rules of the “drunk fest” known as a pyanka, how to “tetris” your zakuski spread, and I will never stop laughing about the day in the life of sauerkraut, kickbacks and all, in the former Soviet Union) and recipes that will make you want to take the vodka bottle from your freezer (or start keeping it there, have I not taught you anything), have a rowdy group of friends over, and cook, eat, and drink until you make plans for next time. I immediately bought another copy for my mother-in-law and a third for a friend. I could go on and on, but then we’d never get to the wild thing that happened last month.

A couple months ago, I received an email from the restaurant’s publicist that Kachka chef Bonnie Frumkin Morales would be in New York to cook a seder at the James Beard House (nbd!) and did I want to get coffee with her? No, I said. I have a better idea. Does she want to come over and cook with me in my small, terrible kitchen, specifically potato vareniki (Polish pierogi’s Ukrainian cousin)? I want to learn how to make them from a pro. Astoundingly, she said yes.

So, let’s talk dumplings. Even if you’re not self-described dumpling fanatic, even if your love language isn’t swaddled bundles of boiled or fried carbs, I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like pelmeni and vareniki — only people that have been unlucky not to have tried them yet. They use the same dough, but pelmeni are generally filled with meat (I have a recipe for Siberian Pelmeni in Smitten Kitchen Every Day); vareniki with vegetables, fruit, or cheese. Vareniki are often a little larger, but I prefer the one-bite-perfection of pelmeni, and make them the same size. Most Russians I know (and the one I’m married to) keep bags of each in their freezer for quick meals, and while they’re often quite good, nothing compares to making them at home. Manufactured dumplings require a dough stiff enough for machines and to hold up to shipping. Homemade doughs are much more tender and delicate. I see you running away, but wait! The dough is mixed and kneaded by hand and requires only a rolling-pin to stretch out — no pasta machines, no machines at all. It’s wildly forgiving. I did a downright sloppy job of sealing mine this week and not one of them tore or leaked.

Back to the visit: After I forced my homemade chocolate croissant attempts (a recipe coming soon, I hope) and storebought coffee on Bonnie and her husband/business partner/road prep cook, Israel Morales, she showed me how to use the pelmenitsa I’d just purchased inexpensively online. Bonnie is a pelmenitsa enthusiast. She considers the mold “a perfection of Soviet design, all angles and efficiency striving towards a utopian future of dumplings for all.” It’s economical (no wasted dough), the 3-cm width is “the perfect bite”, the circular opening in the center of each is “the ideal void” to pack in more filling, and the speed — instead of folding one at a time by hand, you make 37 at a time — is pretty key when your restaurant makes as many as theirs does each day.

Still, a pelmeni mold is not a prerequisite for making Russian dumplings. You could use a potsticker mold, or you can form them by hand, either by folding them into half moons and crimping the edges, or in tortellini-like shapes. I’ll walk you through each. I hope you’ll make them. Even if you think you’re not a dumpling person or that this isn’t carbs-wrapped-in-carbs weather, these will shake every idea you have of dumplings to its core. They’re slippery and light where you’d expect heaviness; uplifting instead of nap-inducing. And the next time you reach for the same old freezer meal and find these instead, you’ll know you’ve won the lottery.

A pathetic sidebar: Because I’m bad at, well, calendars, I hadn’t realized until much later than I should have that Vareniki Day was also Seder Day, the first night of Passover, when I had 17 people coming over for dinner. Maybe you’re thinking, “Cool! You can feed everybody vareniki made by a fancy chef!” I briefly thought this too, then I remembered basically the only rule of Passover — ha! Anyway, it was a wild and fun day but I’m going to schedule my visiting chefs and multi-course dinner party days separately next time, just the same.

I’m sharing one dough (which is also in the Kachka cookbook) and two filling recipes. The first filling is my way — a lightly luxurious potato mash, good enough for everyday. The second is Bonnie Morales’s recipe that didn’t make it into the Kachka cookbook. It is honestly the most luxurious bite of potato I have ever eaten. The process is cheffy: you sieve, you add eggs, there’s semolina for thickening. If you love potato vareniki and want to have the single most exquisite bite of potato vareniki that could ever cross your lips and don’t have a chef coming over to make it for you, this is the way to do it. If you’re looking for a starter potato vareniki that I promise is still miles better than anything from a store, use the simpler recipe.

Dumpling dough

3 1/2 cups (450 grams) all-purpose flour, plus more for counter

1 tablespoon kosher salt (Diamond brand, use half for any other brand)

1 large egg

3/4 cup plus 2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

To serve

A combination or your choice of: Butter, plain vinegar, minced fresh dill, caramelized onions, sour cream (bonus if you find the extra-rich stuff from a Russian store). Shown up top is Kachka’s sauerkraut powder (their own recipe, dehydrated and ground) and I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that these are served with a caviar buerre blanc at the restaurant, the recipe is on p. 304 in the cookbook

For the simple potato filling: Place potatoes in medium saucepan and add milk and salt; milk should just barely cover the potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and a few grinds of black pepper. Mash until very smooth, adjust seasonings to taste, and set aside to cool until needed. You can hurry this along in the fridge.

For the luxurious potato filling: Place potatoes in medium saucepan and add as much milk as you need to cover the potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Strain off milk, saving 2 tablespoons, discarding the rest. Place cooked potatoes and reserved milk back in pot, add salt and butter, and use a potato masher to gently bring the ingredients together. Transfer potato mixture to a sieve and use a spoon or bowl scraper to push it through. Once potatoes are passed, let mixture cool to room temperature. Use a spatula to gently fold in egg until just combined. Add semolina and mix until uniform, trying not to overwork the mixture. Add dill, if using. Place in refrigerator until fully cooled before using.

Make the dumpling dough: Combine flour and salt in a large bowl with a fork. Add half the water and the egg and use the fork to mix them into the dough. Drizzle in all but last 1 tablespoon of remaining water, mixing as you pour until dough forms shaggy clumps. Use your hands to bring the dough together inside the bowl, using the last tablespoon of water if needed. Knead it several times in the bowl before transferring it to your counter. Knead dough for 10 to 12 minutes (set a timer; don’t skimp!) until it forms a smooth, elastic dough. Return to empty bowl and cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let rest at room temperature for 1 hour, which relaxes the dough and makes it easy to roll thin.

You can also make the dough in a stand mixer, using the dough hook to knead for 5 to 7 minutes.

Form vareniki, both methods: Grab a spray bottle of water (or a dish of water and a pastry brush, although just your finger is sufficient for hand-formed dumplings), a rolling pin, and liberally dust a rimmed baking sheet with flour. Remove one-quarter of dough (for hand-formed dumplings) or one-sixth of dough (for pelmenitsa dumplings) from bowl, keeping the rest wrapped until needed. On a very well-floured counter (Bonnie explains that the dough will only absorb as much flour as it needs and no more, so you cannot use too much) and roll it out on a lightly floured countertop until it’s thin enough that you can see light through it if you hold it up; you should be able to roll it to the thinness of pasta dough.

Form vareniki by hand: Cut out rounds of dough with a 2-inch round cutter or a drinking glass. Using two spoons, a small scoop, or a pastry bag, fill each round of dough with a blob of filling — about 1 teaspoon. Dab, brush, or mist the edges of the dough with water, then fold the round into a half-circle, pressing the edges to seal. Take the edges and pull them towards each other, pinching the corners to seal in a tortellini shape. As you shape a few dumplings, you’ll get a sense of how much filling you can stuff into each dumpling and still stretch the dough around it to seal. Transfer the shaped dumplings to your prepared baking sheet. Gather the scraps together back into the ball. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling, rerolling the scraps after they’ve rested enough that you can roll them out again. (If they resist rolling, wait 5 minutes, try again, repeating this until the scraps roll as thinly as the first round did.) I like to slide my tray of vareniki into the freezer while working on the next batch; they’re easier to move around once semi-frozen. At this point, you can cook them right away — semi-frozen or fresh — or freeze them for future use. (Freeze the rest of the way on the baking sheet so they don’t stick, then transfer to sealed bag).

Form vareniki with a pelmenitsa: Drape the rolled-out dough over your pelmenitsa, so that it reaches over the ends of the mold. Press or pat the dough lightly so that an imprint of the mold below is made on the dough; this is so you know where to center the filling. With two spoons, or a pastry bag fitted with a wide tip, scoop or pipe a little blob of filling into each of the 37 divots. You’ll need just a heaping teaspoon or so in order to still be able to seal things (don’t get carried away with the amount of filling!). When you have piped filling into all the slots, roll out a second piece of dough until it’s slightly larger than your mold. Lightly spray some water over the top of your filled vareniki, or lightly brush the exposed dough with water if you don’t have a spray bottle, and then gently place the second round of dough over the top. Firmly roll over the top with your trolling pin, several times as needed, to seal the vareniki and cut the dough between them. Remove the outer trimmings that are not part of the dumplings themselves. (Depending on how thin I’ve gotten the dough, I can reuse these to make a 4th pelemenista of dumplings, hence the range in yield. Let the dough rest until it rolls easily again.) Turn the pelmenitsa upside-down over the prepared baking sheet and nudge the filled dumplings out. Don’t worry if they don’t separate right away. Slide the tray into the freezer while you repeat with the remaining dough and filling. (Once they are firm, you can easily break them apart.) You can cook them right away — semi-frozen or fresh — or freeze them for future use. (Freeze the rest of the way on the baking sheet so they don’t stick, then transfer to sealed bag).

Cook your vareniki: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the dumplings, about 20 per person (or 12 to 15 if they’re larger). Adjust the heat as needed to maintain a healthy-but-not-too-vigorous boil. Add the dumplings and give it a few good stirs, making sure none stick to the bottom of the pot. Cook until the dumplings rise to the surface, and then 1 minute more (this will take 4 to 5 minutes). If you’re not sure if they’re done, you can always remove one and cut it in half — it should be hot in the center.

Finish and serve: While the dumplings cook, prepare a mixing bowl to dress your dumplings. Everyone likes their vareniki a little differently but I’ve been forever converted to Bonnie’s method. For each serving, you want to place a good pat (about 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoons) of butter and 1 to 2 teaspoons of plain vinegar in the bottom of your bowl. Add salt and pepper, if you wish. When the vareniki are done, use a large slotted spoon (this is my favorite) to transfer the dumplings, shaking off the extra water, right into the bowl. Toss! The butter will melt and come together with the vinegar from the heat of the dumplings. Keep stirring, whirling everything together until the vareniki look glossy and lightly sauced and you are astounded by your newfound cheffy skills. Transfer to individual bowls and let everyone add the finishes they wish.

Do ahead: The simple potato filling is good in fridge for 4 to 5 days, the luxurious one for 2 days.

114 comments on potato vareniki

These look incredible – I could eat them any time of year, even in the depths of summer! I’ve had the Kachka cookbook on my list to buy for awhile, very cool that you got to cook with the chef herself.

So being an amateur potsticker maker, I want to jump on the vareniki wagon and buy a pelmenitsa mold! Did you have any problems with your aluminum one (as per your link)? Some reviews said it had sharp edges that ripped the dough. I saw some plastic ones and those seemed to have better reviews. Just wondering…plus, it’s not like they are $50 or anything 👍🏼. Can not WAIT to try these puppies!!

The one I used is the one they use at the restaurant. Bonnie likes it because it has crisp edges. So, I’ve been happy with it. But you need to flour the heck out of it. Don’t worry about using too much. It will leave behind what it doesn’t need.

So glad to see a pelmenista in action (and to learn what it’s called)! I inherited one from my grandmother who used it to make kreplach – which are maybe the same thing as pelmeni? She stuffed hers with lightly seasoned ground meat (beef or chicken). I might try using this dough for that! I’ve been dreaming of homemade kreplach since my grandmother passed years ago.

My MIL makes kreplach with a mix of beef roast and cooked onions that she grinds to make the filling. She individually rolls out dough for each kreplach – using something like this looks so much easier!

Made these tonight – luxurious filling and formed them by hand. I was nervous these would be a little plain (I’ve never made any type of dumplings before) but these were exquisite!!! Little pillows of deliciousness and I dressed them with butter, vinegar and dill. A winner sure, thanks Deb!

I just ordered one of these molds! So excited! I have a big work thing coming up next week and so the week after that will be vareniki week and thus now I have soemthing to look forward to if things get stressful!!! Yay!

I am so, so jealous. To say I’m obsessed with the Kachka cookbook is an understatement. Everything I’ve made has been excellent and now that it’s almost winter, I’m planning a zackuski with multiple dumplings because it just feels right.

I made this tonight and it was AMAZING! I did my immersion blender very briefly instead of sending through a strainer, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly (with the luxe filling). Five stars here and such simple ingredients/preparation, and were a very bright-tasting mouthful on a hot day. Thank you!

Heya! So cool to see a recipe for the ever pervasive perogies, at least where we live in a small village in the Manitoba prairies, where Romanian, Ukrainian and Mennonite traditions are strong. Always the potato filling here includes translucent, butter soaked onions. The Mennonites use dry cottage cheese mixed with egg yolk and heavy cream and no potatoes. Sometimes they make a rhubarb sauce to pour over them or fill with saskatoons, apples or dried fruits. Both Romanians and Ukrainians will boil them, add onions fried in butter, garlic, dill and pour heavy cream over and then bake until the edges are browned and bubbly. There are so many variations, and they appear on school menus, Christmas, Lenten, Easter and Thanksgiving menus or as a quick meal in the ice fishing shack with deer sausage.

I am so excited to try this recipe! I stumbled across the restaurant Kachka while visiting Portland from Los Angeles a few years ago and was awestruck by the food and vibe (their cocktails are amazing too). I made a point of visiting again last month and it was still just as good. The fact that the you had an opportunity to cook with this chef in your kitchen is incredible (sort of like reading Anna Karenina and then inviting Tolstoy to tea….). I hope you have a chance to visit Portland again and dine at Kachka. It’s worth making a special trip. :-)

My Boobie, from Russia, the Ukraine area then) taught me to make these when I was a little girl (64 now!). It was my Dad’s favourite and he loved them with a gedempted chicken gravy. I add fried onion to my potato- yummy!
I have never seen them in a recipe book so I am so happy you have them in this weeks blog – brilliant!

I’m from Portland. I’d better try that restaurant and get the cookbook. Loved you had them in ur home — so special.
I learned about what we call cheese pockets from my mother-in-law (she’s a German from Russia).
This was super interesting. I’m hoping I can get this forwarded to my niece who made cheese pockets for her uncle’s funeral. Think she’d enjoy this. This would be much faster. We cut each circle and pinched shut.

There are no words! I want to make this now and I have to get the cookbook!! I’m moving tomorrow so maybe not! Thanks for sharing I’m so excited my grandma was Lithuanian so I’m sure there’s something in the book that I’ve forgotten! Thanks for the lesson!

>the confusion as to what is “Russian” food
There also appears to be confusion as to what is Russian in general in this case. Because “kachka” is not a Russian word
Recipe is not confused though. It’s a solid vareniki recipe. Of course, potato is a filling number three – one enjoying vareniki should definitely also try them with classic cottage cheese filling and just as classic summer sour cherry filling

Surely, Belarus folks on average love potato more, so for them maybe this filling is actually ahead of cottage cheese or sour cherry. This also was just a sort of a personal opinion.
I don’t plan to make a war over it, I just found it a bit funny (something like saying “Today I went to a British restaurant Tandoor and ate delicious samosas”).

Jessie Davies, there is an excellent varenyky dough recipe from Ukraivin that uses the food processor (it’s a very tender dough, and vegan for Christmas Eve too). When our Ukrainian Saturday school volunteers get together to make varenyky for our holiday bazaar, this is the recipe we use.

What are those newfangled contraptions? Making vareniki should not be quick and easy. I’ve worked many, many assembly lines in my grandma’s kitchen. She would roll out the dough, I’d score the rounds with a small glass. She mixed the filling – cheese or potatoes or meat or, occasionally, cherries if the stars were smiling upon us, I’ll spoon it on the rounds then start folding. She’ll boil the water (without once referring to the salted boiling water recipe on epicurious) and start tossing in the folded varenik, never commenting if they were less than round or fell apart in the water. I’d get the first batch, fresh from the water, with a chunk of butter and a spoon or three of sour cream.

TL ;DR I miss both my grandmas like crazy and can’t wait to make vareniki again.

I have been wondering when/if you were going to mention Kachka ( the book) I found it at the library when it first came out- renewed it as many times as was possible- then bought it on Amazon. It is fabulous and just as Deb said equal parts humor, serious recipes, and photos that are great. Kind of reminded me of Smitten Kitchen in a way…and these yummy things are but the tip of the iceberg. Find a copy somewhere and start cooking/reading/laughing/envying Portland people. It is a decision you won’t regret.

I made this following the recipe exactly (I’m a recipe developer myself so I pinky swear this is true). It was boring at best, tasteless at worse. I used the luxurious filling. The problem with professing that every recipe is earth shattering or will rock your world or one you “can’t live without” or one you’re going to want eat every night is ultimately …disappointment and then an ever so slow wearing down of faith and trust. Before you discard my comment in the bitter/disgruntled pile, please know I love so very many of your recipes. Those fluffy buttermilk pancakes are *the* bomb! But this one not so much. I’m Eastern European myself and found these to be labor intensive and definitely not the best ones I’ve made, or eaten for that matter. I love your writing and pep but I respectfully request if some of the hyper accolades for at least some of the recipes on the blog would be toned down. Maybe they motivate and ignite the other readers into action but not me. I like it delivered with enthusiastic modesty and letting the recipes speak for themselves. Clearly, these most certainly did not “shake every idea (I) have of dumplings to its core.” I wish it had! ):

I’m sorry it was not to your liking, but for me, it was all of the things I wrote. I’d never call it that otherwise. I’ve been buying frozen vareniki for almost 15 years from every brand, including straight from great dumpling shops in Brighton Beach, and these were miles better. When you say they tasted “boring,” do you mean underseasoned? Was the dough not light? Did the filling not have enough flavor or richness?

Like Mel, I just want to note that I do appreciate your writing style, and find the accolades quite accurate. You are the only recipe source I trust completely to give me an amazing dinner, and I especially appreciate your somewhat recent (can several years be somewhat?) focus on fast meals that nonetheless come out incredibly flavorful. When I make something new that’s awesome, my fiance automatically assumes it’s a Smitten recipe :)

@Mamas Personally, I am all for Deb’s superlatives and enthusiasm. Sure a few of the recipes didn’t work out for me, but many were deserving of the superlatives. While you may feel overwhelmed by it and misled, I respectfully disagree and I didn’t see the point of your personal request. If you don’t like Deb’s superlatives, maybe you’re on the wrong website or perhaps you should start your own website, writing it with ‘enthusiastic modesty and letting the recipes speak for themselves.” Also, you’re asking Deb not to be Deb and that’s just not right.

As for this recipe, I am pumped to give it a go. I had been eying the book and this post was the push I needed. Thanks, Deb!

I love Deb’s enthusiasm. I suppose if everything I’d ever made from what she offers underwhelmed, I’d wander away and pay no more attention. But as it is, it’s that enthusiastic love of food and straight up pleasure that bring me back here over and over. That, plus the fact that so many of her recipes have pleased me. Maybe the error is more on the reader’s side, expecting consistent palate alignment?

Deb. What a lovely looking recipie. The cookbook Looks great too. Would you recommend it for a vegetarian or ist it Very meat laden? I Generally really appreciate your recommendations (six seasons is a favourite here and i simply ignore all things meat there)

It’s definitely got more meat in it than Six Seasons. You can browse the table of contents and recipe list on Amazon to give you an idea. If you cook only three things from it, however, I think most people will enjoy it because it’s such a delightful book to read.

The last time I had a vareniki was a few years ago at a little Russian restaurant near Sihanoukville in Cambodia. I remember a sea breeze, a chilled white wine and some of the best dumplings I’ve ever had.

I started my morning thinking I’d make this recipe but it is 40+ Celsius here in Chiang Mai today so I’ve put it on hold. Looks great though!

Deb, I love your blog, I check out your Instagram regularly, and I rely on your recipes, so I was thrilled to see a Ukrainian recipe mentioned – and then was surprised and disappointed that it’s really not. Your dough and filling may be delicious and I will try them, but varenyky are not pelmeni. Ukrainian Varenyky (or Pierogies in Polish cooking) are made in a half moon shape with a “full belly” – never small circles like the pelmeni in the cover photo. There is no tool for this other than one’s hands and heart, they are not round or hexagonal or square, and they would not be confused with another kind of dumpling no matter what their filling.
If I made your buttermilk pancakes in a muffin tin they might still be delicious, but that wouldn’t make them pancakes, and if you called your dumplings pelmeni I wouldn’t be commenting.
I don’t want this to come across as nitpicking, but being cognizant and respectful of a heritage and tradition that has often been lumped in with others.

Thanks, Chris X. -you wrote exactly what I was wanted to say. The filling is definitely different from ones I’ve seen, and I’m curious to try it, but my first reaction when seeing the photos was “wait – are these tortellini?” and then “these aren’t varenyky, these look like pelmeni”. Even my husband (who is not Ukrainian) said they were not varenyky. Definitely half-moon shape, definitely by hand (friends of mine even went so far to say “why isn’t she using a glass to cut out the circles?” – because that’s what my grandmother did….. and with summer coming, try them with fruit (blueberry or sour cherry)!

I completely understand where you are coming from but — and do know, my husband is from Ukraine/Russia, I’m keenly aware of the traditions here — my understand is that it is the filling that makes these vareniki. (I once made reference to potato pelmeni and recieved heaps of DMs and messages correcting me, that only vareniki can have potato in them.) I explain above that these are not the traditional shape but that my family and I prefer the one-bite perfection of the pelmeni shape, a view that was coincidentally shared by the visiting chef.

I feel that my job here is not to miseducate; this is why I explained in the post that this is not the traditional shape as I always explain the places where my recipes may veer from the textbook definitions of the recipe or traditions. But it is my place to make changes to my liking and explain them accordingly, which I have also done. I hope this gives you a fuller picture.

Deb, thank you for making and sharing this recipe! It might only be 98% authentic, but anything that draws attention to the deliciousness of our underrated cuisine is a plus in my book! People are sensitive about ethnic foods because they feel so intertwined with who we are. I started making varenyky before I could form real memories — just the blip of my grandmother handing me a partially sealed varenyk and trusting me to finish the job, over as over, surrounded by all the women in our family. I make a potato version annually if not more often, but you’ve motivated me to try your dough recipe with my favorite — fresh blueberries and sugar filling. Thanks for piquing these memories! And thanks for the recipe.

I have a daughter who is Ukrainian, and though it isn’t traditional, cooking them until toasted all over in brown butter, drizzling the butter over, and adding about three times the amount of caramelized onions is my favorite way of eating these.

After a long wait for din tai fung soup dumplings, someone at my table very plainly stated, Russian dumplings are better. I nearly jumped over there table to fight them. I have since calmed down and figured there are two types of people, soup dumpling people and not soup dumpling people. This post makes me think theres a chance one could love both?

The best part about your blogs is that you explain each and every step so well that it gets easier for us to replicate the process and attain the perfect taste. I am a fan! Keep doing the wonderful work that you are!

We made these last night! Saw the story on instagram and thought, those look do-able. A perfect activity at 41 weeks pregnant, just waiting for our baby to come. They were delicious. Did not induce labor, but so it goes.

I’m gonna have to try these this weekend! Dad used to us to the Ukrainian Club in Sydney (Australia) when I was a kid – and LOVED their vareniki! They always used to come with a generous serve of thinly sliced, deeply caramelised fried onions on top of the dollop of sour cream. Add lots salt and pepper – heaven! Though I think given the calorie content – not too frequently… lol!

This is such a therapeutic dish to make! Even the 12 minutes of kneading is strangely relaxing, and rolling the dough & forming the vareniki put me in a kind of trance, sigh. They also taste amazing.
When I told my daughter “Deb recommends vinegar and butter” she knew it would be delicious & did not need to ask who I was talking about!

Does this bring back memories! I still dream about my Grannie’s pelmeni.

She had a slight variant that might be useful to those making them manually. Instead of rounds, she sliced the thin dough into squares and folded one side over the filling to make triangles. No little bits that need rolling out all over again! Or, God forbid, waste.

Can the dough be made ahead of time? It would be great to prep both the filling and the dough over the weekend (or even form the vareniki totally!) and then cook during the week for an easy weekday meal. Would they not hold up in the fridge?

I’d have to check next time. I remember that after too long, the dough became too stretchy and more difficult to work with without tearing, however, that wasn’t from the fridge. I’d think that from the fridge, as long as you give it time to warm up a little, you’d be fine. Let me know how it goes.

These are amazing. One of my favorite restaurants in Madison is Paul’s Pel’meni- it used to be a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, and they would only sell these meat and potato (or a mix) dumplings. Now they have a nicer place and serve beer and cocktails (maybe other food,too, but why would I want that?), and I still love it. They serve it with hot sauce (I think it’s sriracha mixed with rice vinegar), cilantro, curry powder, and sour cream. I know it’s not traditional, but I don’t care- it’s delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

These were an excellent rainy Saturday afternoon project with a friend and a couple of mostly willing tweens. These were everything you promised! We made the luxe filling and I don’t regret a second of time we spent making them and the ridiculous amount of time it took me to get the flour/potato paste off my kitchen table. One big recommendation is to save the milk from the potato cooking and turn it into a tasty chowder a day or two later. These will be made again…I don’t think the vinegar is an optional finish.

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Yes I LOVE this post. As a Ukrainian, I appreciate ALL the work that goes into these little gems. When I was a kid we ALWAYS had them made with sardines (yuk)!! I still remember my mom and baba churning these out dozens at a time. Baba only had 3 fingers on one of her hands…and if she was still here today I know for a fact she would dance circles around me with her eyes closed and STILL make more (and better) ones than me. I miss her cooking so much.

My family, originally from Ukrania, has always made verenike with goose or chicken fat, both in the potato filling and in the onions used to top them. I thought they always had to have these ingredients, and felt kinda guilty when I didn’t have any around and made them anyway.

Looks great! A little tip from when we made these in Soviet Union. Once you put the first layer of dough over the pelmenitsa, use your fingertips to push the dough in slightly, this way you know where to place the filling and also you can get more filling in.

I made this! And it was amazing! My 5 year old was so excited to have a “noodle pocket filled with mashed potatoes” and I was so excited to have a 10 minute dinner ready after freezing them! And it was remarkably easy. The most important ingredient is time. Kneading, then waiting for the dough to rest is crucial to rolling it out well. I also used the pelmenitsa and a spray bottle and those two things have changed the way I approach stuffed pasta/dumplings as in I can do this! That was the neatest part of this recipe. That addition from a restaurant chef was really helpful because those were tips I would have never thought about and I am terrible with using a pastry brush and water. It shouldn’t be that hard but it is. I hope you continue the series!

I made the easy filling and these were very very good! My favourite part, though, was tonight when I made tschebureki from the leftover dough I had kept in the fridge – love me some fried food 😉
Also, my kids went mad for the vareniki, which is always a serious bonus

Hi, I saw the Diamond salt note about the dough but there is no similar instruction about the amount of salt in the potatoes?

I searched and discovered how many years late I am to the Diamond vs Morton issue. Where I live and cook we have neither brand; our kosher salt is sea salt. Should I be reducing *every* kosher salt in your recipes?

Last night our family had a Russian-themed dinner party with our friends (cooking mostly from the Kachka book) and I made these (with the luxurious potato filling). We loved them but I missed the vinegar recommendation because we were drinking while cooking and I was, ahem, having a hard time following directions after a couple of hours of cooking and drinking. I think this means I need to make them again soon! Thanks for the inspiration- and for the helpful tips on using a pelminitsa.

Thank you so much for this post. We were in Portland last week and went to Kachka. We had a wonderful meal and my husband had the sour cherry vareniki. He said they brought back memories of his mother who made these for him as a child more than 70 years ago. Nothing like a food memory that powerful! Can I now make these at home? May be worth a try.

I only used the dough recipe (made a sweet potato filling instead) and it worked out great with a cheap plastic pelmeni mold. No sticking. They froze well even going into the freezer in a ziplock bag (no pre freeze on a tray- my freezer is never that empty). Very few stuck together once they hit the water. But I only kept them in the freezer for a day, so I don’t know if that affected the good results.

My grandma’s potato vareniki had schmaltz in the filling. Maybe even a little griebenes. And she also used that filling in potato knishes, which she baked with a flaky filo-like dough. She make the dough from scratch, of course.

This is a really good recipe! I used the simple filling but added some cream cheese cause…why not. I think next time I’ll experiment with some other cheese as well for a bit more flavor. Dressing in butter and vinegar is delicious. I served mine with sour cream and sautéed apples and it was very tasty. The dough was very easy to work with. I may invest in one of those dumpling maker molds cause I would like to make these again, and overall it was pretty easy, but hand making each one was TEDIOUS.

I really liked this recipe! It was very easy but very tedious. I would like to make these again, but will invest in the mold thing before I do cause hand making each one is a lot. I added cream cheese to the simple filling cause…why not. I don’t think I added enough salt though because it seemed a little under seasoned. The texture of everything was fantastic – that is what really sets them apart from anything frozen. I have never liked Pierogies because they have that thick gluey exterior, but these were light and tender. They were very tasty with the butter/vinegar dressing, sautéed apples and sour cream. Next time I think I’ll experiment with some grated cheese in the filling for a bit more flavor.

When our first ones came out and we tested, we were also disappointed that they seemed a bit under-seasoned. Then, I salted the boiling water, and they were delicious! But if you ever make them with cheese, let me know and I’ll help you eat em! ;)

To start with – the flavor is delicious. This dish is the essence of comfort food. What drove me to drinking was the pelminitsa. I thought that process was going to simplify things and I overfilled them, then couldn’t get a good seal…then struggled to get them out of the frame. It was a red hot mess. However, once I’d gotten done with the struggle – it was delicious even without all the trimmings.

These were AMAZING! We had a Russian-themed book club and these were the perfect (vegetarian) addition. I had never made pasta/dumplings before and was nervous about the dough, but it was very easy and everything was delicious! Served with caramelized onions and sour cream mixed with some vinegar, S&P, and dill. Yumm.

These were delicious! I made the luxe filling and it was absolutely incredible. My dough was a little tough though, wonder what I did wrong?

I ended up resting it for probably closer to two hours and my rolling pin sucks, so I may have rolled it a little…aggressively (it wasn’t super happy to be rolled out, even after two hours). Could that I have been it? I think I may also not have gotten the dough thin enough. Next time I may use my pasta roller to help a bit?

These were so wonderful, they were worth the considerable effort. I made the luxurious filling, and used a ravioli press for the dumplings, which works exactly like a pelmenitsa but only makes 12 at a time. They are like little pillows of heavenly lightness, and the vinegar/butter treatment is magical.

Next time I make these, I will make a couple adjustments. I think I could get away with using a ricer for the potatoes instead of the sieve – I don’t know if I have an unusually fine sieve, but that was difficult. I overestimated the amount of dough my ravioli press needed, so I had a lot of overhang the first couple of times. I found the re-rolled dough to be difficult to work with, and a 2nd re-roll (3rd total roll) was totally impossible. I would have wasted less dough and gotten another dozen or two dumplings if I hadn’t rolled the extra dough in the first place. I didn’t put dill in the filling, and I’m glad I didn’t – I think it’s better fresh on top. I might experiment with adding cheese to the filling for fun, but it really is perfect the way it is.

I agree with the reviewer that found these “therapeutic” to make. I did find it unexpectedly difficult to roll the dough out to the required thinness, but was able to hand stretch it fairly easily before forming the dumplings. I made half as written (using the non-luxurious filling) and half with a caramelized cabbage/carrot/onion filling recipe I found on another blog. I finally gave up on the second “tortellini fold” because the potatoes kept leaking out (I probably used too much); no one minded the larger dumplings that were only folded in half. My kids loved them, and my husband likened them to his favorite pierogi restaurant in Bellingham. Thanks Deb! And thanks for the intro to Kachka – I live near Portland and will be sure to visit when the pandemic has lessened.

I’m about to head into the kitchen to start these, they will go with a quickie version of your tangy spiced brisket(flank steak in the instant pot)
I’m excited to try some different fillings (I love the one bite size that will be made with the cool tool I just received) I’ve had a recipe for a long time I’ve wanted to try for a pie but didn’t want to make a huge pie…It is a filling of blueberries,goat cheese and basil.
Now off to tackle some potatoes!!!!!

This is the first time I’m commenting on a recipe. I’m from PDX and have heard rave reviews of Kachka but unfortunately have never had the chance to dine there. But this recipe… UNREAL. It’s perfect. The vinegar at the end with the sour cream just brings it all together. We topped it with sautéed leeks and bacon and we’re in heaven. Thank you for posting!!! We love your site and recipes btw so keep it up.